#but nonetheless! tada! tattoos!

[holocene-sims]

i love it ❣️

alternate caption: adventures in alpha hair

[whiskynottea]

How do you headcanon Rachel and Young Ian falling for each other? Much of it happens 'off-screen' in the books

I love this question @ianmuyrray because I really love Ian and Rachel (as you very well know)! 

So, what I need is a close up on them in this scene in Echo:

Miss Rachel Hunter’s voice, surprised and questioning—a man’s reply, low-voiced and husky. A familiar voice—Ian Murray!

They first meet when Ian takes William to the Hunters, to tend his wounds. And then he returns to bring a horse for William. 

Ian: Murray’s tall figure was visible at the edge of the dooryard, gaunt in buckskins, the huge dog at his side.

Rachel: Rachel Hunter was leading it around the house, her apron and petticoats aswirl in the rising wind, one hand on her cap to keep it in place.

I think they both found each other intriguing. A Quaker and an Indian, so different from each other...

Also, for some reason, when Rachel goes back to give William the letter and the package, this happens: He glanced up at Rachel Hunter, who looked away, chin high, but with color rising in her cheeks. He cocked an eyebrow at her, then bent his attention to the packet.

Why is the colour rising in her cheeks? Does this have to do with something Ian told her? Where is this conversation? Because I’m sure that Ian said something funny down there!

Anyway. Ian goes to find Emily after Fort Ticonderoga (Why then? Did he want to clear things up because he met Rachel? Am I delusional? I don’t think so because when he returns to Fort Ticonderoga he thinks: he would like to see Rachel Hunter again sometime) and then he meets Rachel again at the Continental Camp, where they fall for each other, for very different reasons I believe.

Rachel reminds Ian of Claire (healer!), and she’s very, very different from Emily, with her plain speech, the way she’s dressed, etc. She’s also kind, empathetic and assertive and these are traits of both Jenny and Claire, women Ian loves and admires.

On the other hand, Ian stands out with his tattoos and Indian clothes, and he is very different from all the men Rachel has met. He is a wolf and she is the adventurous type (*wiggles eyebrows*). He also earns her respect and gratitude after saving Denzel.

-- Insert here various short, witty remarks between the two of them, and a lot of teasing (“Rollo!” she said, bending down to scratch his ears. “And I see thee’ve brought thy friend along, too.”Ian smiled, lifting the little tin) --

I think we’ve missed a lot of these interactions, or silent moments when they just observed each other. Coming closer. Because then... tada!

She reached to take the tin from him, and her fingers brushed his. The tin box was smeared with the grease and slippery; it fell and both of them bent to retrieve it. She straightened first; her hair brushed his cheek, warm and smelling of her.

Without even thinking, he put both hands on her face and bent to her. Saw the flash and darkening of her eyes, and had one heartbeat, two, of perfect warm happiness, as his lips rested on hers, as his heart rested in her hands.

Then one of those hands cracked against his cheek, and he staggered back like a drunkard startled out of sleep.

“What does thee do?” she whispered. Her eyes wide as saucers, she had backed away, was pressed against the wall of the tent as though to fall through it. “Thee must not!”

He couldn’t find the words to say. His languages boiled in his mind like stew, and he was mute. The first word to surface through the moil in his mind was the Gàidhlig, though.

“Mo chridhe,” he said, and breathed for the first time since he’d touched her. Mohawk came next, deep and visceral. I need you. And tagging belatedly, English, the one best suited to apology. “I—I’m sorry.”

She nodded, jerky as a puppet. “Yes. I—yes.”

He should leave; she was afraid. He knew that. But he knew something else, too. It wasn’t him she was afraid of. Slowly, slowly, he put out a hand to her, the fingers moving without his will, slowly, as though to guddle a trout. And by an expected miracle, but miracle nonetheless, her hand stole out toward his, trembling. 

It seems abrupt, but I think it was slowly built. Ian here made a leap of faith and Rachel responded. She hadn’t expected it, and William expressing his interest for her possibly pushed Ian to act, but it would happen, sooner or later. Ian had acknowledged his feelings for her (he calls her mo chridhe! oh my wee heart), and I think that subconsciously, Rachel knew, too. They were so different, but they felt comfortable with each other and they offered each other a whole world to discover.

Ahhh, I love them so much!

What do you think? What's your headcanon?